Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, yesterday ordered the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fimihan Adeoye, to arrest the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, a first class monarch in the state.
A senior Magistrate, Olusola Aluko on Friday, December 20, 2016 had issued a bench warrant for Oluwo’s arrest. He had last Wednesday ordered the monarch to appear in court on Friday December, 30, 2016, but the traditional ruler failed to show up, when the case came up for hearing.
He said he was surprised that the police commissioner had not arrested Oluwo since he first issued the bench warrant of arrest against the first class monarch. Aluko expressed dismay that the police commissioner had not effected the bench warrant of arrest he had issued against the monarch, which he said he had signed and handed over to an officer of the state police command.
He said, “I am baffled that the commissioner of police has not done his duty. I am also surprised by his claim that he was unaware of the bench warrant. That must be a joke of the century. I, therefore, order him to immediately arrest the respondent.
“I am not joking with my order. He (Akanbi) should be arrested and brought to this court on Friday, January 6, 2017. The sanctity of the judiciary must be protected.”
Aluko stated that the case instituted by the Oluwo Oke of Iwo Oke, Oba Kadiri Adeoye, against Akanbi before his court was not a chieftaincy case but a criminal one.
He said, “I will like to say that the matter before me was filed based on sections 35, 37 and 38 of the criminal procedures of Osun State.
“In a criminal case such as this, a defendant must appear in court. This court is not trying a chieftaincy matter. It is the law that once an order is made, to prevent anarchy, such an order must be obeyed.
“It is to be noted that an order was first made by my brother, Magistrate Omisade of Iwo jurisdiction before the case was transferred here by fiat and I had asked him (Akanbi) three times to appear before this court.”